Wednesday, 11 July 2012

She's A London Thing No.77: Fanny Blankers-Koen

It’s a London
Thing is our Wednesday series in which we turn the spotlight on a unique aspect
of London – perhaps a curious shop, sometimes an eccentric restaurant, a hidden
place, book or oddity. The subject matter will be different every week. The
running theme, however, will remain constant: you have to come to London to
enjoy it. It’s A London Thing.

Fanny Blankers-Koen. She’s A London Thing

At the London Olympic Games of 1948 –
nicknamed the “Ration Book Games” due to the straitened post-war climate in
which they were staged – 30-year-old Dutchwoman Fanny Blankers-Koen (1918 –
2004) won her country’s first track and field gold since the start of the
modern Games in 1896.

She took the tape in the 100m, 200m and 80m
hurdles and won team gold in the 4x100m relay. The British coach Jack Crump was
joined by a chorus of disapproving journalists in the build up to the Games in
questioning Mrs Blankers-Koen’s age. “She is too old,” claimed Crump, “to make
the grade.”

Despite having beaten three British women
athletes into silver medal positions to take her individual golds,
Blankers-Koen was taken to the hearts of the London crowd having endured the
Nazi occupation of Holland.

It later emerged that she had been pregnant
with her third child while winning her medals. In stark contrast to the rewards
on offer to sportsmen and women today, when she returned to Holland she was
presented with a free bicycle from the city of Amsterdam.

In 1948 she was dubbed “the Flying
Housewife”. In 1999 Blankers-Koen was voted "Female Athlete of the
Century" by the International Association of Athletics Federations.

We loved her here in London in 1948. And we
love her still. She is forever a London Thing.

POST UPDATED 6/4/16A London Walk costs £10 – £8 concession. To join a London Walk, simply meet your guide at the designated tube station at the appointed time. Details of all London Walks can be found at www.walks.com.